Toronto police have acquired at least one “Stingray” device, a type of cellphone surveillance technology controversial for the secrecy surrounding its use and its broad privacy impacts.
The force won’t say how much it paid, how many devices it owns, or when the technology was purchased. Toronto police also have not disclosed any policies related to the device, also known as an IMSI catcher, including what it plans to do with the data of thousands of innocent bystanders that will be swept up when it is used. Here’s everything we can tell you about IMSI catchers, and why you might care.
How does it work?
Broadly speaking, an IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catcher mimics a cellphone tower, forcing all mobile devices within range to connect to it. In the time that the device is activated — usually under 15 minutes — it quickly captures unique identifying data from each of the cellphones within its range, and then releases those phones to reconnect to cellular networks. A “Stingray” is just one brand name; there are many makes and models. Police forces across Canada have declined to disclose which models they use, their operating range, or most other technical details, arguing that doing so would compromise investigative techniques.
How do police use the technology?
We don’t know all the circumstances in which police have used IMSI catchers. But through a few court cases that have come to light, we do know the devices have been used to identify unknown cellphones carried by criminal suspects — usually in major drugs, guns and gang cases, where targets often change their phones to frustrate investigators.
It works like this. After getting a warrant to use the device, police follow a suspect from location to location and activate the IMSI catcher at each site, capturing unique identifiers on any cellphones carried by the suspect but also from the cellphones of whoever else is in range. Then, police go through the data and gather the cellphone identifiers that appeared at all the locations. These identifiers should belong to the suspect. With another warrant, police can connect the cellphone identifiers to subscriber information, like a name and address. And with further judicial approval, police can then find out what numbers the suspect is dialing on that phone, or wiretap the phone and listen in on conversations.
Less often, an IMSI catcher is used to track a single known cellphone. This is usually, but not always, used in exigent circumstances, like kidnappings and missing persons cases. In those cases, a device is sometimes used without a warrant.
What types of data do these devices capture?
IMSI catchers capture several kinds of unique identifiers that allow cellular networks to recognize a particular cellphone. The most important are [1] the cellphone’s IMSI number, a serial code associated with its SIM card and [2] its IMEI number, a serial code associated with the phone itself. This is a small sample of a raw data log from a device operated by the RCMP in a 2014 investigation, and was entered as evidence in court. This log also captured [3] the phone’s manufacturer, model, and service provider [4] the time and date and [5] a nametag for the location where the device was used. The device or devices Toronto Police own may be different.
Toronto police have said that their devices do not capture private communications like calls, texts or emails. Instead, they capture several kinds of unique identifiers that allow cellular networks to recognize a particular cellphone. Some of those are:
- An IMSI number, a 15-digit serial code associated with a SIM card.
- An IMEI number (short for International Mobile Equipment Identity), a 15-digit serial code associated with the phone itself.
- The phone’s manufacturer, model, and service provider (at least in the devices the RCMP owns).
I didn’t even know I had an IMSI number. Why should I care if the police capture mine?
Privacy experts care about this technology for several reasons. For one, it is broadly intrusive: it hoovers up information on thousands of bystanders in addition to suspects. The Star analyzed RCMP IMSI catcher data logs from a two-month period in a 2014 investigation, and found that as officers targeted 11 suspects, they swept up cellphone data on at least 20,000 and as many as 25,000 bystanders. The device was used in busy urban areas, including Yorkville, Chinatown/Kensington Market, and the Dufferin Mall.
And while most people are not aware of their IMSI or IMEI number, this data is nonetheless highly identifying personal information. Because we all carry our cellphones around constantly, these unique identifiers are a proxy for you in a particular location at a particular time. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner wrote in a report that this so-called metadata “can sometimes be more revealing than content itself,” because it is objective rather than open to interpretation and can be captured on a massive scale.
The accumulation of surveillance data is another of the privacy experts’ concerns: without proper safeguards on how this data is stored and accessed, they say, police can create a massive database that reveals the location of hundreds of thousands of people through time, and who they were with. Again, police say they need a warrant to associate a name to any of this captured data. But research has shown that supposedly anonymous metadata, especially cellphone metadata, is easily linked to individuals.
Lastly, privacy experts are concerned by the lack of transparency and accountability surrounding this technology, and how secretive police have been about the devices.
Maybe I care if police have captured my cellphone data, maybe I don’t. What will police do with my information, and everyone else who isn’t the target of a criminal investigation?
Toronto police have said their third party data policies are still being developed and will be in place before the device is used. (The force has in the past asked RCMP to operate an IMSI catcher on its behalf; in 2018, two years after Toronto police denied it ever used the technology, the Star learned it had in five separate investigations.)
Comparatively, the RCMP has said that only targeted suspects’ data is passed on to investigators and everything else is firewalled off, stored securely, and eventually destroyed. But the RCMP has also said it does not provide IMSI catcher policies or guidance for other police forces. So in short, in Toronto, we don’t know.
Are there laws governing these devices?
Police need a judge’s authorization to use the device. For about a decade, the RCMP has said they used a general warrant. Then, for a few months in 2015, the RCMP did not use any warrant at all, based on legal advice. Later that year, the RCMP began using a new kind of warrant known as a Transmission Data Recorder warrant, which requires a lower threshold of evidence to obtain. Toronto police have not yet confirmed what type of warrant they use.
Under the Criminal Code, parliament must be provided with annual statistics on police use of wiretapping. This is meant as a measure of accountability: the report must include how many warrants for wiretaps were sought, how many were provided, how many were denied, and how many charges were laid as a result of this invasive mode of surveillance. The Criminal Code also requires that anyone who is the target of a wiretap be notified. No such reporting requirements exist for IMSI catchers, so we don’t know how often they are used or how useful they are in producing criminal charges. Under current laws, the thousands of people whose cellphone data is swept up when these devices are used will never know.
Who else owns or uses this technology?
Besides Toronto police and the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police, Calgary and Winnipeg have confirmed to the Star that they own an IMSI catcher. Spokespeople from Hamilton, Niagara, Vancouver, and the Sûreté du Québec told us that police have used this technology with the assistance of a law enforcement partner but do not own it. Police in Ottawa, Barrie, Windsor, York Region, Durham Region, Edmonton, Montreal and Halifax would not confirm whether they have used the technology, though some confirmed they do not own it.
This should come as no surprise to anyone
CSIS – Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Communications Security Establishment ,Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, Canadian Forces Intelligence Branch and the RCMP have been spying ,collecting data and information on Canadians for years
Including Emails internet sites Cell phone conversations and data
They now collect your banking info health and dental records
What’s next ?
Ass wiping time probably …lol
I hope United States ICE is using this.
Pretty soon you won’t be able to wipe your ass without someone knowing it ..Just reading about the house protection Co that had dual speakers and listeners in their system ….Could talk or listen on anything going on in your house ……….
A person will need to apply for permission to wipe their ass.
Their number one priority is intercepting anything anti-muslim. Second priority is anything anti-Turdeau. Third is anything pro-pipeline.
Basically being anti-Canadian.
They are basically hacking our phones.
I’m curious, who the hell do they think they work for?
Timmy. Don’t be so facetious. All police are subject to the government of Canada laws and statutes. And who’s in charge in Ottawa? That corrupt prick who allowed our bank information to be used against our permission. That’s who they work for….
UN?
You gotta wonder. Sometimes it makes you think if Canada is Soro’s test drive of the new world order. Dipshit is in his back pocket and this UN deal is part of the package. That weeny we may one day have sitting on the Security Council would be guilty of nothing short of world wide treason. Somebody in our country filed a complaint with the rc goat fuckers accusing turdie of treason. He laid out his reasons and turdies lackeys huddled and then told him he’d have to go to court to get a charge of that nature filed against him. Really? He lets in ISIS fighters who brag about roaming freely in Canada. Nobody’s monitoring them. Refugees enter unvetted and commit crimes against citizens and those illegals are just misunderstood and need an interpreter. They won’t investigate because they take orders from the pmo. Our investigative units from the AG to our national police need to be exempt from political interference. When honest people run our country we have no problems. But we have Castro junior who admires China’s basic dictatorship running our show. He won’t make another four years if he wins. And people need to wake up to this bullshit. The liberals have to go….
If youre connected to anything condersider your privacy a memory. It no longer exsists .
And Alexa is connected to a biased Liberal database and processor. Bluetooth is WIFI with shorter range but same protocol.
Big-Data-Tech-Knows..!! —————->> Home or automotive RE-Po problems? A survey . . . .
{” . . .Big Data shows repo guys where to look to repossess vehicles : Dealerships are turning to monitoring driving habits to direct repo crews to where cars are most likely to be when payments falter.
(Mortgage problems could be WORSE, if you know not what you’re doing)
by – Charlie Osborne for Between the Lines | March 28, 2018 — 09:50 GMT (02:50 PDT) |
Topic: Innovation – When vehicles are on finance, there is a variety of issues relating to late or missing payments.
https://www.zdnet.com/artic…
FEATURED : Apple hardware problems: iPad Pro users report stuttering screen, unresponsive keys
Financial problems, illness, and more can mean that owners can no longer afford their means of transport, and dealerships are left with the task of chasing payment. As a last resort, repossession crews may be sent to recover vehicles to recoup some of the lost funds. However, tracking owners can be a lengthy and costly task, especially when vehicles are not present at home addresses.
ERM Advanced Telematics hopes to provide dealerships with a solution to the problem. While many automakers and technology vendors are focusing on next-generation solutions, infotainment, and autonomous driving, ERM develops sensors for a very different reason. The company’s new Parking Habits service is for dealerships that offer Buy Here Pay Here (BHPH) financing options. The solution, embedded within vehicles, monitors driving and parking habits.
Parking Habits sensors and software are embedded into StarLink tracking units, connected to the service provider’s servers, which allows the software to continue to operate even if the driver disconnects or destroys the StarLink trackers. Where a car has been parked over days, weeks, months, and even years, is all recorded, in addition to the frequency of when a vehicle has been parked in particular spots. When a driver fails to make payments on time, the dealership can use this data to predict where the vehicle is likely to be parked at particular times of the day — and send in a repo crew to pick it up.
However, the snooping goes further, as the company says the software can also be used to predict potential payment problems: The car financing company is able to see if, when and how the drivers have changed their parking habits in a way that requires the company’s attention.
i) “If the alerts highlight a driver that has stopped parking each morning near his or her workplace, it might suggest that the customer has lost his or her job and might have difficulties in paying for the car on time.”
ii) According to ERM, dealerships in the US and South America that have signed up have retrieved roughly 400 cars in only a few weeks. The company says that this will save dealers “millions of dollars” (although how this is calculated is in question).
iii) “Our Parking Habits service greatly reduces the risk companies take when offering car financing, and allows them to quickly, easily, and at minimal risk and cost retrieve vehicles for which they did not receive the required payments,” says Eitan Kirshenboim, CMO of ERM.
It is not known how this data is stored, managed, or secured, nor is it known how long the information is kept.
For dealerships, having a way to keep track of vehicles on finance — which therefore still belong to them — is a tantalizing prospect and one which can, in theory, save them a small fortune in repossessing vehicles. Tracking and surveillance relating to where a driver goes, where they work, what times they are driving, and where they go on weekends, is not such a palatable prospect for owners.
See also: How to take Amazon’s Alexa with you in the car ***********!!!! If the solution is offered to consumers, for example, in exchange for a lower rate of interest — in the same way that the UK’s “black box” trackers are meant to lower the cost of insurance for new drivers — then at least the choice is given to consumers to be monitored. If not, and without any assurances on how this personal information is secured and managed, it may be seen simply as an outright breach of privacy.”}
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, that Orwellian 1984 was over so LONG ago now…!!
Big Brother extends his reach eh? Of course the police would never abuse any information obtained on joe public. Eh?
In a Pig’s Eye!
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